Google opens the door for Android developers writing in Java to port apps to the iPhone with their open-source j2ObjC (Java to Objective-C) tool.

Developers make apps and apps sell phones, so this move by Google should endear them even more strongly to Android developers. Their new J2ObjC software tool “converts Java classes to Objective-C classes that directly use the iOS Foundation Framework." (Googles announcement). The Register reminds developers the tool is not a cross-platform miracle.

The open-source command-line tool from Google will help Android developers port their code to the iPhone, but won't do all the work. But it will keep more of their code in a single base that can be used for web-based apps, as well as Android and iOS. UI functions still need to be in Objective-C.

Problems

Is my memory faulty or do I recall Apple closing off apps developed using cross-platform tools from the apps store a few years back? Must be some fingerprint in code generated this way that they'll spot and close off too.

Yeah, I already write cross-platform code with C++ and it is really not as bad as anyone leads you to believe. Create one single C++ entry point object that drives everything else. Use sqlite for storage, jsonc for serializing/deserializing json, pthreads for threading and curl for making network requests.